Utility

Southern Company says it has been granted a conditions-based waiver by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations across its energy network from Georgia to California.

Electric utility ComEd says it is expanding its drone program to allow pilots to operate inspection drones remotely, without being present on site. The utility has secured all the necessary waivers required from the FAA to conduct operations in which the drone flies beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator. And it is currently training pilots to automate drone flights using the Skydio Dock docking and recharging station.

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has taken another step in its increasing use of drones as tools in inspecting and managing its vast infrastructure by obtaining a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waver for beyond visual line of sight flights (BVLOS) at its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, in partnership with Skydio.

Transport Canada has given its approval to Ontario Power Generation to operate inspection drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), without an onsite visual observer, at McConnell Lake Control Dam. Percepto, whose drone-in-a-box solution will make this feat possible, points out this is the first time regulators are allowing autonomous drone operations in Canada.

Update, January 27, 2023: American Water has clarified that advanced drone flights are being made possible courtesy of its partnership with the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), an New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) corporation which holds an FAA Part 91 Certificate of Authorization.

The earlier report from American Water follows…

Utility provider Southern Company says it has reached a new milestone on a joint research project with Mississippi State University (MSU). The duo is finding ways for the energy provider to safely expand the use of drones to map critical infrastructure, assess weather-related damage, and conduct routine utility inspections.

Already accustomed to using drones to inspect its enormous 1,400 circuit miles of transmission infrastructure, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) says it’s now turning to artificial intelligence (AI) analytics to both speed up and improve detection of weak points requiring repair, and take action to prevent costly outages.

Specialist public safety and first responder drone consultancy Skyfire says it successfully assisted wildfire-plagued utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to obtain a Federal Aviation Administration waiver to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) infrastructure flights throughout the entire state of California.

With drones making powerline inspections safer, more efficient, and cost-effective, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new Part 107 Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver that would allow Valmont Industries to fly its drones across the United States at a moment’s notice.

Southern California Edison says it plans to spend an estimated $50 million in drone inspection services over the next three years to ensure that nearly 160,000 of its electricity poles are adequately maintained. The news comes a day after the utility was sued by a second group of families alleging that a “negligent reckless, and willful failure” to maintain electrical equipment led to the outbreak of the destructive Fairview Fire last month.

In response to the summer’s record heat waves amid an enduring period of drought, UK utility Anglian Water moved to ramp up its use of drones to spot pipeline leaks faster – an effort that has already spared the company and its customers countless gallons of expensive wasted seepage.

ComEd, the utility which powers the lives of more than 4 million customers across northern Illinois (or 70% of the state’s population), has started using drones for vegetation management near power lines.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), an electric utility that serves more than 12 million people in Florida, says its $1.2 million FPLAir One drone is ready for primetime. The launch of the FPLAir One, the utility adds, is a milestone in itself because no other uncrewed aircraft of its size has ever been used before for commercial purposes outside of an FAA test site.

It’s been four days since a winter storm pounded Virginia with up to 11 inches of snow and left tens of thousands of residents without power. Crews at utility company Dominion Energy have been working tirelessly ever since to ensure a swift response to the outages. But with heavy, wet snow knocking down trees and making some areas especially inaccessible by road, drones have played a critical role in giving linemen a head-start on understanding what they’re dealing with.